Storage cabinets and drawers near a sink, such as in a kitchen, bathroom, or laboratory, are often damaged or made unsightly due to liquids that are splashed or dripped onto the cabinet doors and drawer fronts. In addition to water, other liquids that may be spilled include cleaning chemicals, food waste from dirty dishes and pots, and juices from food being prepared.
If liquids pool atop a cabinet door edge or similar surface, either frequently or for a long time, the liquids may soak into the wood or other material and cause swelling, warping, or breaking down of the material. Liquids that run down a face of a door or drawer create streaks as they dry and may seep backward under the bottom edge of the face. Significant amounts of liquid may even run inside the cabinet or drawer over the top edge of the door or front.
This uncontrolled liquid flow can cause permanent damage to the cabinet or drawer, as well as damaging the contents of the cabinet or drawer, encouraging the growth of mold and bacteria, or providing moisture and food for insects.
Of course, proper sink, faucet, and countertop designs play an important part in minimizing drips and splashes. Cabinets and drawers can be made of impermeable materials and can be made to seal liquid-tight. But accidental spills and splashes will still occur around sinks, even well-designed ones. Cabinets and drawers are expected to be attractive, economical, and convenient as well as resistant to damage. Thus, cabinets and drawers are rarely made to be completely splash- and spill-proof.
The problems caused by uncontrolled liquids around sinks have not yet been solved by improved design or materials. In fact, a feature often used in the latter half of the 20th century, a raised band along the front edge of the counter top, has been discarded. Many, if not most, countertops installed in the past twenty years have front edges that actually encourage liquid to run off, such as radiused, bullnose, beveled, and crescent outlines.
Many under-sink cabinet and drawer materials used in laboratories are relatively resistant to damage from common liquids. However, even these cabinets do not generally seal liquid-tight because such cabinets would be much more expensive and less convenient to open and close. In private homes, current taste tends toward more complex decorative design and exotic materials. Many homeowners choose kitchen and bathroom cabinets because they love the look and feel of the materials, not for their impermeability and resistance to liquids.
Most countertops are designed to overhang the cabinets below, that is, the counter extends two or more inches outward from the face of the cabinet. On casual inspection, an overhang might be expected to cause any liquids that run off the countertop to fall directly to the floor, without contacting the cabinet below. In practice, though, this is not the case. Cabinets and drawers below overhanging countertops are still vulnerable to liquid spills.
Patent application US 2011/0011467 A1 of Fillhart, published in January 2011, asserts that a bullnose edge countertop that extends beyond the cabinet below not only allows liquid to flow off the edge, it directs the liquid to bend backward from the overhanging edge to splash the cabinet below (para. 007; see also FIGS. 1A and 1B). It seems likely that other popular decorative edges for countertops would have the same effect. Fillhart discloses a drip guard to be glued to the underside of the countertop overhang. According to the Fillhart disclosure, the drip guard successfully diverts liquids away from the cabinet face. However, the drip guard itself cannot be easily removed for cleaning and looks as though it creates a difficult-to-clean crevice (FIGS. 2A and 2B) that would quickly become unhygienic.
There is thus a need for a means to divert liquid that spills off a countertop, overhanging or not, away from the cabinet below without creating a different cleaning problem. A suitable cabinet protection means would particularly guard the upper edges of cabinet doors and drawer fronts from any contact with liquids, while preventing entrance of liquids into the interiors of the cabinets and drawers. It is further desirable that a cabinet protector not detract from the decorative appearance of the cabinet nor make use of the cabinet less convenient.